The Secret To Perfect Pizza Dough

pizza dough ready for a wood fired oven

I've made pizza dough 100's of times at LLAMAWOOD HQ. And prior to slinging firewood, I was slinging pizzas as a cook at Mellow Mushroom in college. I don't think I have ever messed with dough as resilient and versatile as the dough that comes out of this recipe. The secret to this dough is the 10 minute rest between mixing. The rest allows the gluten to relax. Here is the more science-forward explanation from the chefs at Modernist Cuisine "Kneading the dough liberates starches that are attached to the proteins and allows the gluten to form networks that make the dough strong and stretchy. When you let the dough rest, the networks relax." This all results in a really flexible, dependable dough that anyone can make.

Ingredients:

  • 500 g "00" Flour
  • 341 g water
  • 3 g instant yeast
  • 10 g honey
  • 10 g salt

Steps:

1. Measure out your ingredients using a kitchen scale. If you don't have a scale, you can grab one on Amazon for under $30. Go with one that has 0.10 g precision. I like OXO.

2. Put all ingredients in a standing mixer with the dough paddle. Turn speed to slow to incorporate all ingredients.

3. Turn up to medium once all ingredients are mixed and mix for 5 minutes.

4. Turn off mixer and let stand for 10 minutes.

5. Turn mixer back on to medium speed and mix again for 5 minutes.

6. Dump the dough out onto a well floured surface.

7. Cut the dough into four equal pieces. Fold the four corners of each piece up under itself and put back on the floured surface. Repeat for all pieces. Cover with a light dusting of flour and then with a piece of plastic wrap. Let rest for 10-20 minutes.

8. Stretch the dough out into a circle (or as close to a circle as you can get) and then place on a well floured pizza peel and add toppings. As they say at Mellow Mushroom, a little cheese can go a long way.

9. Bake in a super hot oven. We recommend a wood fired Ooni pizza oven or a homemade wood fired pizza oven.

10. Enjoy delicious pizza!

Back to blog